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I'd say it depends on what kind of sound you're looking for. any number of 15" speakers is going to be a little slanted toward the low end, meaning there'll be lots of it, which might be a good thing, but there's not going to be so much in terms of high end definition, which might not be such a good thing.

My favorite example of a straight 15" sound is Jack Bruce on pretty much any Cream album, but mostly on Disraeli Gears. Pick up a copy of that to hear the thundering sound of a lot of tubes through 15's only.

Adding the horn will help, but only to an extent, because while it will add back to the very top end, the mids will still lack a tiny, ut noticable bit of clarity, but if you're a slap player then this could be your wet dream.

It just depends on what kind of sound you're after.

As for the head, i have no idea. If you can stretch your wallet a little bit the EA iAmp 500 is probably the most versatile, almost certainly the lightest, and has very powerful tone shaping abilities. Other than that, I have no idea.

I rebuilt an old Fender cabinet with 2x15s, Foster tweeter horn and x-over, so that sounds alot like what you're considering.
The cab is big, tough, and yes.. quite heavy.
I loaded it with two Eminence Kappa Pro LF-2s, 600 watts, 120 oz. magnets, and it's wired 4 ohms.
The tweeter and x-over I bought from Dave at Avatar cabinets at a great price. He's great to deal with. The x-over is one of their newer designs that seems to work quite well. It comes mounted on a nice input panel with tweeter level control, speakon, 1/4" jacks..
I originally built the cab without the tweeter/x-over and I was pretty short on high-end. Alot of 15s fall short in the high, high-mid area.
With the tweeter, it's very crisp and clear. I would most definately recommend the tweeter/x-over.

Sound: I like it. It's strong in the bass and mid-bass areas (as most 15s are), but a touch tempermental in the mid areas. Some of this might have to do with the amp I'm using (Behringer BX3000T). I compensate by running an EQ with the amp, and it works out really well for me.

Shortcomings: You might be leaving a frequency gap between the 15s and tweeter, but that depends upon the useable frequency range of your selected 15s and the crossover.
I still think 10s and 12s do better upper mids, but once again that depends upon the quality of the speaker.
One thing for sure, I never run out of lows when I want that.

I went through the same thing myself a while back - all these guys are right on - you won't get a crystal clear and bright top end, and the top end response will be a bit sloppy (if only a slight tad) but the lows and low mids will be awesome!
I ended up building a split - 2 indivisual 1x 15" boxes - that way i can stack 'em any way i like, or pair them with a quad.
Good Luck
smo

Most 15" require large cabinets for correct tuning. Making a 2x15 produces a huge piece of cabinet real estate that is particularly ugly at 02:00 am loadout.

As pointed out above, you will have a thuddy box that hisses nicely.... you will need mid-range above those 15's to fill the hole.

You can download my spread sheet and sort by 15" drivers, then by Vb to see how things fall out. The new Eminence Neo drivers are particularly interesting. The 3015LF has great bottom in less than 4 cubic feet.

Based on my experience, I think you'd be better off with a 1 15 cab, and a 410 cab with a horn and attenuator - much more versatile, plenty of volume, and able to get ANY tone you might want... I played through 2 15s for many years, and still have 2 of them, but use the above described set-up exclusively...

I play through two 15"s period...I don't care care for bass through compression drivers. If I were going to add a higher frequency component, I'd go for one of those 5" galaxy drivers...just my opinion, though.

Most 15" require large cabinets for correct tuning. Making a 2x15 produces a huge piece of cabinet real estate that is particularly ugly at 02:00 am loadout.

As pointed out above, you will have a thuddy box that hisses nicely.... you will need mid-range above those 15's to fill the hole.

You can download my spread sheet and sort by 15" drivers, then by Vb to see how things fall out. The new Eminence Neo drivers are particularly interesting. The 3015LF has great bottom in less than 4 cubic feet.

Click to expand...

You are so right about loadout time! My 2x15 makes me rethink every beer I drank during the gig sometimes. Of course my cab was large to begin with, and since I was set on using it, it only got heavier as I proceeded.
A good thing is that my cab isn't hissy at all. The avatar crossover and tweeter level control give me just the right touch of highs that sound very natural to me. Of course I know I am missing some frequencies, and I'm sure I'd like to have those.
There are so many configurations for cabinets, that a person really has to plan ahead.
One good idea would be to build individual 8-ohm 1x15 cabinets, and go with a Eminence Alpha 8MR. You could go 2-way. This might leave you lacking a touch of high end. You could consider throwing the tweeter into the mix with a 3-way crossover.
It depends on whether you already have the drivers and stuff.
If I were re-doing my project all over again, I would definately consider going with a 2x10 box with tweeter on top of a 1x15 cab.
Mag...

I guess I'm going to be the one going against the grain here and say that a 2x15 cab doesn't necessarily imply your mids and highs will not be good or to your liking.

Personally, I can't stand horn/tweeters in my cabs. They make things sound harsh and unnatural, IMO. From what I understand, if you plan on running distortion you can kill a tweeter. Hopefully someone with experience there can jump in with more info.

Anyways...as anyone who has played through a Trace Elliot 1524 (no horn, tweeter, or other mid/hi drivers) can tell you, it does the whole range really well. I will admit that the Trace sounds (tuning?) a little different than most but it shows what can be done with 2x15's. Another great example is the NV215. It has a 6" driver added instead of a horn/tweeter. Hmm, I wonder why Bergantino chose a 6" instead of a horn/tweeter?

I do plan to add a 4052H 4x5" Bright Box (which is in transit! ) but it is purely a GAS addition, not a necessity. It will give me the extra little bit of highs that I might need yet still have a natural sound. Another benefit is the lack of hiss and the ability to handle distortion effects.

So, I would look into maybe adding a 6, 8, or 10" mid/high driver(s) to round out the sound in place of a horn/tweeter setup.

Even on wheels, there will be plenty of times where you need to lift the thing. getting it ind and out of the car for example. Sooner or later you'll find yourself carrying it up/own stairs.

A a rough rule, I find most people are able to comfortably carry a cab that's half their body weight or thereabouts. Once your cab exceeds that, that's when people start finding it a chore to lug it around.

The thing I've been reading about 15s is that because of their surface area, they develop their sound further away from the speaker itself, and "beam" the sound more directionally, compared to, say, 10s. Just read the BP 410 neo vs 212 review on the avatar site and it confirms this difference.

Hey, I built my own 2x15 cabinet for my AS Level project. I had some help from Dr Decibel (Master of Tonal Mystery - it actually said that on his business card!) of Celestion Speakers who helped me with the science and maths bit to sort out size and porting etc. The speakers are Celestion Q15-somethings...

It's 1.6m tall, 0.6m wide and... i can't remember how deep it is. 0.4m i think. The ports tune the cab to 32Hz meaning the low B doesn't lose a load of volume.

Any more questions just ask and I'll try to help

Being realistic it's a bastard to move around but it looks great in my bedroom

Oh yeah, the head is a McGregor 200w bassman although the cab is rated for 600w at 4ohms.

Even on wheels, there will be plenty of times where you need to lift the thing. getting it ind and out of the car for example. Sooner or later you'll find yourself carrying it up/own stairs.

A a rough rule, I find most people are able to comfortably carry a cab that's half their body weight or thereabouts. Once your cab exceeds that, that's when people start finding it a chore to lug it around.

When I chose the 15" speakers for mine - i ended up with the Eminence Legend series (300w each at 8 ohm) They have a very good smooth performance, and roll off a lot more gradually in the mids than many other 15's tend to, and they have a great sensitivity too. With these i can dominate in my band, and thats comprising both a 50w and a 120w guitar tube amp!
Check 'em out.
Personally, I love the sound i get with these - very smooth and they do have a nice gradual transition from lows to highs. If you like a mid scooped tone - they'll do it in spades.